A Man's Promise (17 page)

Twenty-Eight

C
aden stared at his brother. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”

Jace shook his head. “I wouldn’t joke about something as serious as that, Caden.”

“Then why would you think something like that?” he asked, his face filled with indignation. “Why would anyone want to kill me? How did you come up with such a crazy idea?”

Jace absently tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “Trust me. I want to think it’s crazy as well, but...”

“But what?”

“But,” Jace said, standing, “like Shana suggested, we have to consider all possibilities.”

“Shana?”

“Yes. We talked about it last night, and she’s concerned it might not have been an accident.”

Caden released a breath that was part frustration and part disbelief. “Why? Your fiancée is concerned someone wants to harm me just because someone tried to kill you? Damn it, Jace, that’s not fair.”

Jace frowned. He leaned forward and braced his hands on Caden’s desk to stare him down. “And it’s not fair that you assume her thought processes are based on emotions. I admit that when she first brought it up, I thought the same way you did. However, we might be jumping to conclusions about it being an accident. We need to consider all the facts,” he stated, the tone of his voice edged with deadly calm.

“What facts? I told you what happened, and Shiloh saw the entire thing. Don’t you think she would have said something if she thought it was intentional?”

“Not necessarily,” Jace said, returning to his chair. “All Shiloh noticed was a car heading straight for you. She even said as much.”

Caden rubbed a hand down his face in frustration as he cursed under his breath. “Look, Jace, I want to put what happened Saturday night behind me. I sure as hell am not going to start looking over my shoulder just because Shana thinks someone is out to get me.”

“All she’s saying is that
might
be a possibility, Caden. Just think of all we don’t know. Who was the driver? What was the make and model of the car? Why was anyone drunk and parked on that street when there aren’t any bars or nightclubs in the area?” Jace asked.

“Hell, I don’t know.”

“I don’t, either, but I think we should find out. It might be nothing, and I’m hoping that’s true. But I want to be sure. I admit I hadn’t thought of any foul play until she brought it up. But you know Shana. She’s good at what she does because her brain never stops working. She even ran it by her sister last night.”

“Her sister?”

“Yes. Jules is an ex-cop who owns a P.I. firm, and I understand she’s good. She agrees that we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of foul play.”

Caden walked over to the window and glanced out, but his fury clouded everything. His body was tense, and he felt frustrated. The weekend with Shiloh had been wonderful, more than he could ever have wished for. They had resolved their differences and were back together, where they belonged.

Although he hadn’t planned it, he’d ended up spending last night at her place anyway, which meant getting up early to go back to Sutton Hills to dress for work. He looked forward to seeing her again tonight, and like he had told Jace, the last thing he wanted was to feel he had a reason to start looking over his shoulder. He resented this unexpected theory of Shana’s. He didn’t need it; nor did he want it.

He turned back to Jace. “And how are we supposed to rule out the possibility it really wasn’t an accident? Like I told you, I can’t even tell you what kind of car it was, and Shiloh can’t, either.”

“What about that guy who saved your life? Think he might remember?”

Caden shrugged. “Not sure. He was there one minute and gone the next. I don’t know how to contact him.”

Jace didn’t say anything for a long minute. “Would you be willing to at least talk to Jules, Caden? Answer a few questions she might have, and then let her rule out the possibility of—”

“I’d rather not,” he said, coming back to his desk and sitting down. “I don’t want my life turned upside down on the possibility of a far-fetched idea.”

“Will you do it for me? I made a promise...we all did, that we would watch each other’s backs. If anything were to happen to you and I felt I could have prevented it, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. If you think the whole idea is far-fetched, then let Jules prove you right.”

Caden didn’t say anything as he picked up a pen and rolled it back and forth between the palms of his hands. He thought about how he’d felt when he’d learned Jace had been kidnapped. All he could think about was that he had let his brother down by not watching out for him. Not protecting each other like they’d promised their father and grandfather they would. He knew exactly how Jace would feel if anything were to happen to him. He’d been down that road already and didn’t wish it on either of his brothers.

“Okay, I’ll talk to Shana’s sister. I’ll answer her questions. And when she discovers I’m right, you owe me a damned case of Scotch.”

Relief ran through Jace. “And I’ll be glad to buy it for you,” he said, standing up. “I’ll make arrangements for Jules to meet with you this week. The sooner, the better. And she’ll probably want to talk to Shiloh.”

Caden tossed his pen on the desk. “Fine. I’ll let Shiloh know.”

* * *

Jules sealed the envelope containing documents that finalized the paperwork on her last case, thinking this was the story of her life. One case after another. At least her sister had found true love. She couldn’t help but smile, feeling pretty happy about it. After all, she would be an aunt in nine months or less. Definitely less.

She tossed her pen on her desk, leaned back in her chair and gazed out the window. For some reason, she was feeling edgy, hot—and her feminine urges were kicking in. Damn, when was the last time she’d been fucked? She frowned, thinking that sounded rather vulgar and needed to be rephrased. Okay, then, when was the last time she’d had sex?

Thinking of it as making love was totally out of the question. Who did that these days...except for Jace and Shana and a few more happily married people out there—people like her dad. She rolled her eyes. Christ! Who wanted to think of the possibility of her parent getting some when she wasn’t?

Standing, she went over to the coffeepot and poured herself a cup. It was after lunch already and she’d skipped it, as well as breakfast. That meant she’d have to eat something nourishing at dinner. She needed to feed her body.

She needed to take care of something else with her body, too, and it was beginning to speak loud and clear, demanding that its needs be fulfilled. She thought about her life again and decided she needed something to shake her up. Her personal life had become boring, and she didn’t see any improvement ahead. She had no man, and her battery-operated toy was getting damned worn-out.

She went back to her desk, thinking that she might be getting back into another case—as a favor to her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Hopefully, Shana was wrong about what she thought had happened Saturday night. That would be quick to prove, and her involvement would be over. Then what? She wouldn’t take any cases that would require traveling until after the holidays. That meant she had the rest of this month, then October, November and December to continue to be bored.

She took a sip of her coffee, thinking that the only real excitement she’d had recently had been last month with the man she’d run into at the club. He’d been a cutie. Hot with a capital
H.
Fine with a capital
F...
in italics and bold. He had crossed her mind a number of times since that night, and she would even admit he had crept into her dreams a time or two.

Yes, he was handsome, and damn it, he’d known it. He could have had his pick of any woman at the club that night. But she had given him the brush-off. Served his ass right for thinking he was all that and a bag of chips...even if he had been.

She wasn’t crazy. The man had wanted sex that night. She had seen it in his eyes, had read it on his lips, even without speaking the words. Hell, he had
horny
written all over him...just the way she had it scribbled all over her right now.

Jules took another sip of her coffee. Manning, who worked as her administrative assistant, had left already for a doctor’s appointment. With little to do, she had told him not to worry about coming back today since she would be leaving early herself.

The phone on her desk rang, and she saw who it was. Smiling, she answered. “Hello, Dad.”

* * *

“Would you like to explain why Caden Granger was sneaking out of your place this morning before seven o’clock?”

Shiloh glanced up from the stack of papers on her desk to see Sedrick standing in the doorway of her office.

She studied her brother and noticed two things. He was wearing his white medical coat, which meant he was probably on his lunch hour, and second, he was frowning. She released a deep sigh. Her weekend had been too beautiful for her to let Sedrick or anyone else try to blemish it.

Shiloh leaned back in her chair. “What were you doing around here that time of morning?”

“The road was closed on Fifth and MacConnie, and I figured I’d make better time detouring through downtown. Imagine my surprise when I was sitting at the traffic light and saw Caden sneaking out of your place.”

“Caden was not sneaking out. I invited him to stay the night.”

Sedrick’s frown deepened. “That’s a switch from Saturday night. If I recall, you were acting as if you couldn’t stand the sight of him.”

“Yes, I guess it was a switch, since he spent Saturday night with me, as well.”

Her brother just stared at her. She could feel his anger and couldn’t understand the reason for it. “Would you like to explain how that happened?” he asked.

“I will, but not because I feel that I have to, Sedrick. I’m an adult, and I make my own decisions about my life.”

He came into the office, closing the door behind him. “True, and I think I’ve always treated you as an adult, Shiloh...except for those times you showed up at my place crying your eyes out like a child because of how shabbily Caden had treated you.”

“That was when he thought I had wronged him.”

“Doesn’t matter what he thought. I still comforted you as a big brother would his kid sister.”

Shiloh didn’t say anything. She remembered those times. There had been only two—the night Caden had had her thrown out of his concert and last month, when she had gone to Sutton Hills to see him and he had refused to listen to her.

“So how did he get to you? How did he get you to change your mind about moving on in your life without him?”

Shiloh walked over to the window and stared out. It was a beautiful day, but nothing could be as beautiful as the weekend she had shared with Caden. A weekend that could have ended in tragedy.

She turned back to Sedrick to find him staring at her. “To be honest, Sedrick, it wasn’t anything Caden did. It was something that almost happened.”

She saw the look of confusion on his face. “And what almost happened?”

Shiloh swallowed deeply, remembering. “Caden came close to being killed Saturday night.”

* * *

Sedrick went stock-still, looking as thunderstruck as she’d felt that night. “What do you mean, he came close to being killed Saturday night? When I left your party, he was still here, and he seemed pretty damned fine to me.”

She went back to her chair to sit down. “It was after you left. After everyone left and he was leaving. A drunk driver lost control of his car and almost ran him down.”

“Is this what he told you?”

“No, that is what I saw with my own eyes, Sedrick. If a Good Samaritan hadn’t knocked him out of the way, he would have been killed.” Her voice was breaking, and there was no help for it. Talking about it made her remember every little detail.

“What Good Samaritan?”

“We don’t know really. Some guy was walking by and saw what was about to happen. However, instead of going into a panic and screaming like I did, he went into action and pushed Caden out of danger.”

Sedrick didn’t say anything for a moment, but Shiloh could tell what she was saying was now sinking in. “The guy who saved him... Is he all right? What about Caden?”

She nodded. “They’re both fine. Bruised up but fine.”

“Did anyone call the police? Did the car stop? If not, did anyone get a tag number?”

“No to all three. Things happened so quickly, and there was no need to call the police when we had no information to give them.”

Sedrick didn’t say anything for a minute, and then he came and plopped down on the chair across from Shiloh’s desk. “I don’t like the sound of this,” he said angrily. “You’re upset about what happened, and I can understand that. But there’s something else you might want to consider about what happened.”

Shiloh lifted a brow. “What?”

“That the entire damned thing was staged.”

She stared at her brother, and his expression clearly said he honestly considered that a likelihood. “That’s not possible.”

“And why not? If he wanted to play on your sympathy, then what better way to do it? It definitely got him a night in your bed.”

Shiloh leaned over her desk, releasing an angry breath. “It was not staged, Sedrick. I saw the entire thing. There was no way for that driver to know when Caden would be leaving my party. It happened just like I told you, whether you choose to believe it or not. Caden could have lost his life Saturday night.”

“Well, forgive me if I have trouble believing it. It worked in his favor too damned well to suit me.”

Shiloh stared at her brother, not understanding this hostile attitude he had toward Caden. It hadn’t been there two weeks ago. She could clearly recall him telling her all he wanted was her happiness, and at one time he’d acted as if he’d wanted her and Caden to get back together. What had happened? She then recalled something she had noticed at her party Saturday night.

“Are the Greenes the reason you’ve suddenly developed this dislike for Caden?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw you hanging with them at the party. And it was pretty obvious they were acting rather badly toward Caden. He noticed it, as well.”